I was a pudgy child, or so I saw myself. Others may have called me solid. One boy friend told me I wasn’t fat, just well-packed – like this was what a teenage girl wanted to hear from a guy she wanted to date?

I have been thinking of food all my life. Seriously. I don’t need a shrink to tell me that food fills emotional holes. The first one opened when my mother died, when eating made me feel less alone. I ate at exam time in college, when food filled the confidence hole. I ate when my kids were little, when food filled the frantic, what-do-I-do hole. I ate when I wrote, when food filled in missing words or plot twists.

More aptly, can you multi-task? Some people can’t. Some do it now and then. Some are able but unwilling. Where do you fall on the spectrum?

I’m of the able-but-unwilling school. I used to multi-task more than I do now, and age has something to do with that. But it’s a positive thing. I’m wiser now. I choose now to multi-task less. That said, it’s taken me a while to get to this point.

Broken them already, have you? Personally, I can’t count the number of years I vowed to diet, only to pig out within days of the holiday. New Year’s resolutions are tricky that way. Too often we set ourselves up for failure with yet another promise to work out or quit smoking or limit screen time.

Here’s a pressing question: Does the need to pee wake us up, or do we wake up for another reason entirely and then decide to pee?

And another one: Do we wake up early because our eyelids have thinned out so that even the first light of dawn penetrates, or do we wake up early because we went to bed early?

I’ve always been a morning person. I’m out of bed at dawn because I crave a cup of tea, because my mind is fresh and eager to work, and because I go to bed early after waking up early, so the cycle goes.

I’m a positive person. I pride myself on that. But there are times – there are times – when frustration sets in, and I need to vent. I’ve shared pet peeves with you in the past, but I’m revisiting them now. Do you agree with any? Do you have your own?

First and worst, drivers texting. When someone darts out in front of you from a side street, then crawls along for a block before suddenly speeding up? Or when a driver slows on the highway, even weaves a little between lanes? You know that driver is using his phone for something that takes his eyes from the road. And urgency is fine. But put on a blinker and pull over, then text all you want. Or wait before barging out into traffic and holding up everyone while you do your thing.

Think “energy of women.” I did not come up with this phrase. My agent did when, yesterday, I was telling her about spending last week on a tiny island with seven other women. The island in question is part of the Thousand Islands archipelago in the St. Lawrence River in Canada. At the tippy top of its thirteen-ish acres sits a beautiful house, replete with en-suite bathrooms, a dishwasher, and full Internet connection. So we weren’t exactly roughing it.

Do you eat ’em? Not so long ago, we were told to limit our intake. Too much cholesterol, they said! Not healthy, they said! But now, recent studies are showing that the cholesterol in eggs isn’t all bad.

Take a look at this article. Interesting, huh? Clearly, you should eat eggs in moderation, just like you do any other food. Three for breakfast, three for lunch, and three for dinner might not be so good. But one or two a day? That may be okay.

There will be six of us for dinner Saturday night, including a couple of really good cooks, meaning that if I try to compete, I fail. So what to serve? I may write good books, but a gourmet cook I am not.

My gut tells me that it’s best to go with simple and fresh, which, this time of year in the Northeast, means a big multi-ingredient salad. Fresh veggies and fruit, lettuce from the garden, sweet corn … they’re my key ingredients. Hey, don’t yawn. Salad may be healthy, but it doesn’t have to be boring.

Whoa. I just looked at my last blog, and realized how long I’ve been gone! Well, not really gone. I’ve been here at my desk the whole time, plugging away at my new book. But now we’re into October, and sweet corn is passé in New England. What’s in? Apples and cranberries (the picture below is actually of cranberries). Ginger and yams. Cool nights. Fall foliage.